Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time 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 sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in 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 this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
