A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted 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 should be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face 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 finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
