Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
