Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit 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 sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, 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 chance to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
