A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of 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 various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
