Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
