Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
