Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
