Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume 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,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
