Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
