A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume 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 earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
