Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
