Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations 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 achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
