Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
