A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
