Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with approximately 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 advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
