Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta