Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
