Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
