Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
