Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets 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 achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
