Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
