Approximately twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
