Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
