Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “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’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
