A little more than twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
