Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
