A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
