🔗 Share this article

A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.

“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.

“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”

With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Push

In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably 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 shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

Space Mission Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”

The Future

The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta