A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “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 agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
