Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
