Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
