Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
