A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
