Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
