Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut 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 not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
