Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, 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 variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
