Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
