Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
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 range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
