A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as F1's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
