Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
