Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
