Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that 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 employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta