Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
