Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
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 specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
