🔗 Share this article

A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.

“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”

With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”

Driver Lineup and Team Building Push

In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.

NASA Blueprint

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the project at a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”

The Future

The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta