A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix 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 existing team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
