Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
