Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
