Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
