A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as F1's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
