A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
