A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
