Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
