Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
