A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
