Just over a full year ago 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 the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
