Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
