Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress 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, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
