A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build 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 want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
