Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural 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 task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
