Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
