Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut 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 sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming 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 commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand 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 adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
