A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, 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 shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
