A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
