A little more than a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days 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 task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
