A little more than twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
