A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac 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, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
