A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
