Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
