Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days 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 monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
