Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
