Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
