Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
