Just over twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at over 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, 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 non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
