Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad 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 plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
