Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now at over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
