A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
