Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
