Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, 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 it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
