Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 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 don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
