A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
