A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
