Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
