Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives 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 staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, 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 chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize 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 implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
