A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
