Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
