A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with around a hundred days 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 sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. 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 comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
