A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand 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, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
