A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
