Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume 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,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 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
