A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
