Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
