A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
