Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
