A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
