A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
