Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
