Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
