A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, 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 traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
