A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
