Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, 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 variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
