Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
