A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, 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 decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
