Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
