Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
