Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
