Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing 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 young American Colton Herta
