A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
