Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
