Just over one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, 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 observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team 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 show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
