Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
