Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
