Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
