Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
