Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first 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 challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
