Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
