A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of 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 various components of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta