Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
