Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
