Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
