Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
