A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly 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, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
