Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
