Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
