Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the project across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
