Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect 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 accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
