Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
