Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural 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 never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
