Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
