Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
