A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
