A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
