Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
