Andretti’s Formula 1 Technical Director Nick Chester sat down for an exclusive conversation with Motorsport Week just a day after the prospective F1 outfit moved into its new Silverstone facility.
Chester’s background in F1 is extensive, with a career spanning several decades going back to association with Simtek in the mid-nineties before moving to Arrows and later Benneton, whereupon he remained with the Enstone outfit through its various guises as Renault (playing an integral role in Fernando Alonso’s back-to-back titles), Lotus and Renault again, serving as Technical Director from 2013 to 2020. He then moved out of F1 and into the Mercedes Formula E set-up as its Technical Director and departed the team in February 2023 shortly after its acquisition by McLaren.
Now, he serves as Technical Director of the Andretti F1 project, whose expansion to a new Silverstone facility in the UK represents its commitment to getting onto the Formula 1 grid in 2026.
“As we’ve been expanding the F1 project, we needed to grow,” Chester told Motorsport Week. “And we have arrived on this unit and it’s sort of ideal for our expansion really. We’ve got plans to expand beyond this unit as well as the F1 project grows.”
The Silverstone site is designed as Andretti’s main Formula 1 hub, but Chester admits the team is a “global effort” with collaboration ongoing with the General Motors side of the project and Andretti’s new site in Indianapolis.
“We’re obviously very linked. You know, it is a global effort and we’re very linked with Andretti Global in the States. So there’s work going on there as well. There’s going to be a lot of manufacturing of the F1 car at Andretti Global and also at General Motors.”
Part of that effort is Michael Andretti’s proposed vision to expand his eponymous outfit into FIA’s recognised junior formula, namely Formula 2 and 3. Chester says it’s not just Andretti’s vision to use F2 and F3 to develop driving talent, but also talent in the garage and behind the scenes.
“So it’s always been on Michael Andretti’s radar that having feeder series is a great way to bring drivers through to Formula 1. But also it gives you the opportunity to train engineers, to use the synergies of having a lot of motorsport series as Andretti already does with Formula E, Indy, IMSA. So it’s seen as a way to expand those synergies.”
Expanding the project in F1, F2 and F3 requires staff and there’s already a team in place at Andretti’s new facility and the plan is to go on a heavy recruitment drive as Andretti’s work “continues at pace” to get onto the 2026 F1 grid.
“So there’s 80 people here in the UK,” says Chester. “We’ve got 50 on the project at General Motors and we’re recruiting heavily. So every week there’s new starters and we’re pushing on with the project to put a car on the grid for 26.”
That project pushing has seen the team, including the likes of aerodynamics and performance staff “trying to prototype as much as we can to prepare for ’26.
“We’ve already been nose crash testing. We’ve done our first prototype nose crash. We’ll be crashing a V2 nose shortly. We’re making a section of the chassis to do the side homologation test. We’re going to do a full prototype chassis this year so complete from front bulkhead to rear bulkhead.
“The full detail you would normally have. We’re already doing driver layout so pedals, columns. We’ve done a roll hoop test already. We’re iterating on that test. So we’re trying to prove out some of the big structural items on the car so that they’re in the bag as we refine the development for ’26.”
The target to enter the F1 circus in 2026 coincides with the next major regulation change, where new power units with a greater focus on electrification have caused concerns among the current teams regarding power conservation and the mitigating inclusion of moveable aero.
The challenges posed by the still-developing technical regulations for 2026 aren’t a concern for Andretti however as Chester points out the team is purely focused on preparing the best car it can regardless.
“We’re not too worried about that,” he says. “I think it has moved on a little bit in that the drag targets have come down so there’s less lift and coast and it looks much more achievable. Effectively we’re working with the framework we have to deliver that ’26 car. It’s the same for all teams. I think for us it’s a case of just making the best car you can under the regulations.”
Still, despite the team forging ahead with its F1 plans, with staff busy working away in their new Silverstone workplace under the gaze of iconic imagery of Michael and Mario Andretti’s previous racing exploits, there remains a large hurdle to overcome to get onto a Grand Prix grid.
It’s no secret that F1 rebuffed Andretti’s bid to get onto the 2026 grid yet here the team is forging ahead as if its entry was granted. Unsurprisingly, Chester was not at liberty to discuss if a dialogue has continued behind the scenes with F1, but the work being done at Silverstone proves Andretti won’t go away quietly and is putting all the necessary building blocks in place to prove it is a worthy and fully-prepared inclusion into the pinnacle of motorsport.
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