Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
