Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
