Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit 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 aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a point to prove 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 operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize 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, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
