A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
