A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
