A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
