Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
