Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
