Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, 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 opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
