Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds 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 newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new 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 the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
