Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
