A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
