A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project 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 manager consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
