Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
