Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
