A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
