Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
