A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
