A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
