Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
