A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
