Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, 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 non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
