Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
