Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
