Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
