Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's newest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One 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 established team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts 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 just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition 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 emerging American Colton Herta
