Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
