Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
