Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent 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 since then and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works 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?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
