A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
