A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor 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 each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
