Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
