Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
