Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
