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Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.

“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”

With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.

“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive

In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.

Space Mission Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program in a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta