A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 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 gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
