Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
