Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging 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, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
