Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
