Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
