A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
