Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
