A little more than twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
