A little more than twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes minds 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 going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
