Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
