Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
