Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing 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 aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
