Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
