Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as F1's latest entry for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough 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, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
