Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
