Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
