A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season 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 technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
