Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
