Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
