Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
