Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
