Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
