Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. 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 flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
