A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
