Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. 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 akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
