Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
