Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign 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 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize 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 conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
