A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
