Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, 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 that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
