Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
