Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
