Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
