Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required 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 race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time 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 monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
