Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix 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 possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
