Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
