Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
