A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume 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,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
