Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, 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 assortment of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
