Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
