Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 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 CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, 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 tackling different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
