Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport 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 Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
