Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly 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 thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
