Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
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 variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
