Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center 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 say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
