Just over one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges 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 championship to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
