Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, 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 chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
