Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
