A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race 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 task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
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 on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
