Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed 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 existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
