Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
