Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process 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’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
