Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
