Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
