Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
