Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
