A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
