Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
