Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
