A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
