Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
