Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “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 we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
