Approximately a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect 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 setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
