Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
