Approximately twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
