Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
