Just over twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
