Just over twelve months previously at the Las 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 team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
