Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware 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 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement 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
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
