Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
