Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested 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 taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
