Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
