A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
