Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
