A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
