A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
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 Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity 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 goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
