Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
