Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
