Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
