Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
