Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to 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 different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
