A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
