Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at 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 process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta