Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
