🔗 Share this article

Just over one 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 newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the final race of the championship 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 advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.

“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Challenge

The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.

“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”

With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort

In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.

NASA Inspiration

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta