Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
