A little more than a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta