Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
