Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural 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 sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
