Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
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 range of project teams all working on different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
