Approximately a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing 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 enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
