Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
