A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
