A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
