A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
