Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
