A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
