Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri 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 difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta