Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
