A little more than twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
