Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
