A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
