Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
