Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track 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 never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“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 accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
