Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. 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 progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad 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 plant to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
