Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
