Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
