Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
