Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
