A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as F1's newest participant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
