Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
