A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, 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 sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
