Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
