Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
