A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut 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 task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
