A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
