A little more than twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
