Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad 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 noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility 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 organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
