Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” 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 we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
