Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back 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 following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, 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 specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
