Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
