A little more than a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
