A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
