Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
