Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
