Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
