Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as F1's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
