Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume 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 feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
