A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, 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 opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
