Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 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 never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
