A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing 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 adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
