Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
