Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets 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 feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
