A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
