Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now at over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
