Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
