Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix 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 rarely get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
