Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
