A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
