Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining 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 advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
