Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
