Just over one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
