A little more than twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
