Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center 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 organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
