Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, 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 implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
