A little more than a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
