Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
