A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, 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 that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
