A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
