Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural 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 aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, 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 comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
