Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
