Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible 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. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
