Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, 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 established team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
