Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
