Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, 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 existing team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
