Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
