A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
