Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging 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, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
