Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
