Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
