Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year 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 should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
