A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
