Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity 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 each day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots 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 the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
