Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing 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 well-set team you won't have the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
