A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
