Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
