Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
