Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
