Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
