A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
