Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task 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. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, 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 non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
