Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount 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 stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
