A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
