Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
