Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
