Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
