A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
