A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
