A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne 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 cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad 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 commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
