Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
