Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
