A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
