Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
