Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
