Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
