Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
