Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track 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 task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
