Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
