Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
