Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
