Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
