A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
