A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
