Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly 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 knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
