A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
