Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years 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 challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
