A little more than a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
