Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, 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 chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
