Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
