A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
