A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
