A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
