Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
