Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
