Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
