Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
