Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with approximately 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 challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
