Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
