Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough 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 embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
