A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track 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 monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
