A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ 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 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
