Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal 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 deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
