A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, 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 assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
