Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
