Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One 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 possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
