Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume 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 accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
