A little more than twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
