Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
