Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem 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,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
