A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
