Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
