A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
