A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
