Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta