Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
