Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing 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 monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
