A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
