Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance 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 each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
