Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
