A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
