Just over a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
