A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming 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 commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
