A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted 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 NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
