Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, 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's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, 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 adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
