Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, 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 observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
