A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
