Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta