Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
