A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as F1's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
