Just over one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, 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 possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
