A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
