Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
