Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta