A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
