A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
