A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
