Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
