Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
