Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
