Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
