A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge 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 name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
