A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
