Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
