A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough 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 adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
