Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming 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 stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be 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 remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
