A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
