A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit 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 task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, 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 chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult 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 embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
