A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over three months 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 monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
