Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
