A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
