Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
