Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
