Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
