Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
