Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
