Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, 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 opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
