Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“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 feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
