A little more than twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
