Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested 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 young Californian Colton Herta
