A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating 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 well-set team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, 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 specialist groups all tackling various components of the mission across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
