Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
