A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
