A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
