A little more than a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
