Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove 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 executing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
