Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
