Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount 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 stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
