Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
