Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
