Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
