Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
