Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming 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 commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
