Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
