A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
