A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
