Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
