Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track 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 monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, 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 recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
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 Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
