Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable 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.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
