Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. 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 decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
