Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
