Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
