Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
