A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit 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 endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought 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 turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
