Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
