Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
