Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
