A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
