Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
