Approximately twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta