Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and 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 it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
