Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “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 track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
