Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
