Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team 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 commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
