Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
