Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
