Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
