Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport 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 Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
