Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit 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 never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
