Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume 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 this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
