Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
