Just over twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, 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 personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
