Just over a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months 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 come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
