Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
