Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
