A little more than twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly 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 these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of 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 implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
