Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
