A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
