Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track 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 sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
