Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
