A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
