A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
