Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
