Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
