Approximately twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
