Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
