Approximately a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
