Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
