A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
