Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred 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 advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
