A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
