Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
