Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging 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, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
