A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team 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.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
