Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, 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 advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta