A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
