Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
