A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
