A little more than a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta