Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
