A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days 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 cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
