Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly 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 people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
