Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish 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 believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
