Approximately twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
